Everybody needs a sympathy card on hand and they can be difficult to create when needed. I made one for the Mod Squad Challenge to keep on hand.
I found this idea on Pinterest. I added more water than the one I found and use different inks and a different sentiment, but the rest is the same. The stamp sets used are High Tide by Stampin Up and sign4words by The Stamps of Life. I used Lawn Fawn inks for the water, birds and greeting, and Memento ink for the sky. The gems are from Hobby Lobby.
With inspiration from buddy Gayle, I pulled out several bee stamps and ideas began flowing. My card is a bit different for me, as I rarely create cards using several company stamp sets and/or dies.
I started with Paper Smooches stamps. The bee came from Courteous Cuties and the greeting “hapbee birthday” came from More Courteous Cuties. I decided to stamp the bee near the top, so I cut the greeting apart and placed it around the bee. I saw an idea where the hexagon was cut with a number 2 on it, so I used my hexagon dies from The Stamps of Life along with the stamp set minihexagons4backgrounds, where I heat embossed it with white embossing powder. The number 2 is from graduation2celebrate and matching dies, also The Stamps of Life. The word “you” is alphabet stamps from Hero Arts. I felt the card front needed something else, so I began with the stitched rectangle die from The Stamps of Life, but that wasn’t enough as it still looked too plain. Out came the Cuttlebug Hexagon embossing folder. I like the embossing as it looks like a bee hive.
This will also be added to the MISTI challenge at Split Coast Stampers. This month’s challenge is to use numbers and/or alphabet.
I like how the card came out. It was fun creating.
Today is the day to post cards for the Challenge Your Stash group at Split Coast Stampers. This month the challenge is to Make a project with a Tiger – or a wild cat of any sort: lion, puma, panther, cheetah–just not a domestic pet.
First of all, we are having stormy weather and sunshine is not in the forecast for several days. With that in mind, I did my best to get light with a daylight bulb and a few pieces of cardboard around the light. This card looks much better than the photograph will show, but you can see the blue and green.
I stenciled the clouds with a gifted stencil from a stamp buddy, using Lawn Fawn ink in a light blue color. I blended green ink on the ground then added grass with a darker green ink. The grass is from a Stampin Up set called Sending Sunshine; it is retiring on Wednesday so if you like it, get it now. The sun is from a Gina K Designs set called Own Kind of Beautiful; it is long ago retired. The regal lion comes from The Stamps of Life, lions2stamp with matching dies. I stamped the lion with Lawn Fawn and Gina K Designs ink in Kraft, Sandy Beach, Sunshine, and dark brown colors, then came back with Prismacolor pencils to add texture and the orange mane. I have never penciled on top of ink before, but it worked beautifully for the needed color. I chose a greeting from The Stamps of Life set and called the card finished.
Thanks for spending time with me and this lion.
The following card was created and sent to a 10 year old boy who has cancer. I chose an interactive card idea.
I chose fishtank2stamp and morefishtank2stamp from The Stamps of Life. The patterned paper is also from TSOL. I used lift the flap dies from Lawn Fawn. I made an envelope that is decorated with the fish tank on the front where I wrote his address. I will not post it as I had the address written before the photo was taken. I thought this kind of card would bring a smile to his face. I understand he is currently in the hospital and hasn’t eaten for a few days and his white blood count is not in a good way.
Today is the day to post the Crafter’s of Faith card for this month’s theme. This month’s verse is Philippians 4:4-7 which begins with the words Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Then it goes on to say to create a card to show rejoicing in God. These days, I hear birds the minute I wake up and they continue throughout the day and into the night with the owls. I chose a card that rejoices in the nature God created.
I followed an idea of Lisa Mears a designer for The Stamps of Life. The sky is stenciled in yellows using Lawn Fawn inks with a blending brush and the stencil from Buddy Bonnie. I used my new Make Art Station which held the paper perfectly and made stenciling quite easy. All images were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with alcohol markers. I fussy cut everything. I created the scalloped border with dies from two different companies. The scalloped portion is a Gina Marie die and I wanted a frame, so used a rectangle die from Catherine Pooler Designs. The stamp sets used are birdbath2stamp and morebirdbath2stamp by The Stamps of Life. I could add gems, run a vine up the birdbath, but I think I will leave as it. This makes it easy to mail.
Today is the day to share cards created for the Challenge Your Stash Group at Split Coast Stampers. The challenge is to make a card showing a kissing couple, a couple in love, or love for a pet. I made two cards using the same technique.
For each of these cards I used the mirror image so they faced each other. I tend to use this technique every year for our anniversary. That is quickly approaching in about 3 weeks, so this challenge was perfect timing for me.
The elephants are from a new set from Lawn Fawn called elphie selfie flip flop with matching dies. I learned I was able to die cut the reverse, but flipping my cardstock over. I colored the elephants first with alcohol markers, so it bled through and I could easily see where to mount the die. I used dotted paper from My Favorite Things for the scene. This card will be posted to the monthly MISTI Monday challenge at SCS.
The seahorses are from a limited edition stamp set from The Stamps of Life. For these images, I die cut first then stamped the reverse image. I use a stamp called Mirror Image, where I stamp the image on the stamp then use that stamp to place it on my paper. Sometimes it is quite light, so I have to trace with a black marker. The background was made using alcohol inks on vellum cardstock. Basically you scribble with the marker then brush or dot rubbing alcohol all over the ink to create the blended background. I use 99% alcohol as the paper stays flatter. I saw this on a SU Demo video. It is fun to create and every background is different.
I am adding these cards to the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.
Thanks for looking at my cards for this month’s challenge. I like both so am not sure which will go to my husband. We will be celebrating our 30th anniversary.
I finished a card yesterday with a Unicorn and a Rainbow under a cloudy rainbow sky.
The rainbow stamp set, from The Stamps of Life, rainbow2stamp, was released in July 2017 and has been in my stash that long. The unicorn is from Paper Smooches Spectrum set, released in 2015, now retired. I used several ink colors to make the clouds. This is a bright card that will probably be sent to someone needing a bit of encouragement.
Continuing on with the challenges.
This card followed a tutorial. After following the tutorial, I kept thinking of easier ways to create. The tutorial showed a punch for cutting the circle and I used a die, as I do not own circle punches large enough. The box was assembled before placing the inside piece behind the circle. I think the inside could be place easier before closing the card. I struggled getting my piece in and ended up adding another piece to place the circle on to get it centered inside. The end is cute, but it was a struggle and I owned one piece of each paper being used.
I used the dragonfly2stamp from The Stamps of Life for the inside stamping and the front greeting. The dragonfly itself was fussy cut from patterned paper as I didn’t have the die that matched. The patterned paper is from Echo Park. The cardstock is SU.
The hostess for this challenge has an autistic son who love to feed the ducks every day. It is part of his life to go the park, feed the ducks, geese, or any animal he calls a duck. I used the set Spring Has Sprung from Gina K Designs and Simple Celebrate from Lawn Fawn to stamp and create this card. The pattern paper is Echo Park and the cardstock is Balmy Blue by SU. I had fun coloring this card.
This card was created using flowers2layer from TSOL. I had the background stamped waiting to be used so I stamped the greeting strip and finished a flower and leaves to add to the front. It was quick to create.
The idea for this challenge to show a form of transportation used at the park. I chose a bicycle. The stamps and dies are all from The Stamps of Life, bicycle2stamp and the grass die. I grabbed green colors from my stash and cut grass. The bicycle was stamp and cut waiting to be used. I did add the basket.
Thanks for looking at this set. More to come.
Last weekend was Virtual Stamp Night at SplitCoast Stampers. The theme was Parks and Recreation. Each hostess talked about a park or place they liked to go and what we needed to create based on their experiences. The challenges were posted on Friday March 19 and Saturday March 20. We had a full week to get the cards completed and posted. Each card had 1 hour to complete the card with preparation time not included. I completed all 13 cards and posted them on time. I will share these cards over a series of posts. Thanks for looking and reading.
Challenge A was Zoo Animals. I used a toucan from The Stamps of Life for my animal. It was colored and cut waiting to be used. The tropical background is from Stampin’ Up Tropical Chic stamp set. I had several ink pads pulled out to get several greens. I enjoyed creating this card as I love tropical cards.
This was the last card I completed for the challenges. I am not a technique lover, nor do I love shaker cards, so I put this one off till the last minute. I thought and thought how to make the liquid without wasting good hair gel. I use hair gel, but didn’t see myself sending this card so it was basically to complete the challenges. I finally saw that someone had used hand sanitizer. I have a lot of expired hand sanitizer, so that is what I used. I took a Ziploc bag, add hand sanitizer than added Bermuda Bay reinker drops to give it a water color. I used the greeting from fishtank2stamp from The Stamps of Life, added fish from fish2stamp, then found gems.
This was a very heavy card. It had layers of foam adhesive to make it level. I had it standing on a cabinet in my craft room and the next day, it had totally fallen apart due to the weight. It passed the challenge, but not a challenge of making a card that would last.
Another card put off till the end as it is a technique card. For this one I took a SU Case, removed the stamps, added ink drops, marbles and shook it all about. Then I placed a piece of cardstock with removable adhesive to the top of the case and closed it, then shook some more. I made a total of 5 card fronts with the marbling from the marbles. I showed the backgrounds to my daughter and she selected this one saying it looks like sprinkles.
I used the SU set called Hoot Hoot Hooray for the cupcake images. I added a few gems and called it complete. For putting this challenge off so long, this was fun and easy to create.
This challenge was to create a card using Uniform Colors, like the colors on a Park Ranger’s uniform. I chose to used the alligator from partyanimals4onlineclass from The Stamps of Life. I did not take the class, but purchased the set from Amazon along with matching dies. It was odd that they were there, but they were shipped from The Stamps of Life. Anyway, I used alcohol markers in Earth and Tan tones in coloring the alligator’s clothing. The alligator is green. This was fun card to create.
Thanks for looking through this post. More cards to come.
Stamp Buddies 